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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, milk, sugar, gelatin, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Whip the sweet cream until stiff.

  2. Combine the grated chocolate, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of water in a saucepan.

  3. Stir the mixture over low heat until smooth and glossy.

Combine and cool

  1. Boil the remaining ½ cup of milk.

  2. Stir in the chocolate mixture and gelatin until dissolved.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

Set

  1. Fold in the whipped cream and add vanilla extract.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  3. Refrigerate until cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable body as it chills.
Sweet cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds air and a light, creamy texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and richness of the dessert.
Milk
Supplies the liquid in which the gelatine and chocolate are dissolved.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Allow the mixture to cool before folding in the whipped cream. If the chocolate and gelatine mixture is still hot, it will deflate the whipped cream and lose its air. Cooling it first keeps the cream light while the gelatine begins to set.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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